与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

的概念
in special relativity,
我们对过去、现在、未来的印象
so our impression of past, present, and future
来自于我们的构造方式
has to come from the way that we're constructed.
我们的大脑不停地处理信息
Our brains constantly process information,
最近的信息变成现在
and whatever is most recent becomes now.
大脑随即把这些信息移♥动♥到我们的记忆中
Our brains then move that information into our memory
为新的现在腾出地方
to make room for a new now.
现在是最近的信息
The present is the most recent information.
过去，是我们记忆中的东西
The past, right, is what you've got in memory.
我们用过去和现在，尝试预测
We take the two, and we try to predict, right,
我们在未来的所见
what we're gonna see in the future.
如果我们不是这样感知时间的呢？
But what if we perceive time differently?
吉姆想象大脑用新的方法
Jim imagined brains constructed
解译事件序列
to interpret sequences of events in new ways.
以快速移♥动♥的冰球运动为例
Take the fast-moving game of roller hockey.
球员们根据现在发生的事情
The players are all making decisions
做出决策
based on what's happening in their present.
如果一个球员所经历的现在是其他人的过去
What would happen to a player if his experience of the present
将会发生什么呢？
was what everyone else sees as the past?
假设吉姆交给球员的护目镜
Let's say the goggles Jim hands to this player
改变了他看待时间的角度
changed his perspective on time.
假设这个护目镜包含了一个程序
Let's say that those goggles contain a program
将我们的现实
that filters the events in our present
延迟10秒钟
and delays them by 10 seconds.
开球之后，两支队伍向着球门分散开
After the face-off, both teams scatter toward the goal.
戴护目镜的球员仍然停留在冰场中♥央♥
The goggled player remains at center ice.
别人在10秒钟之前看到的
What happened 10 seconds ago for everyone else
他感觉像是现在
feels like the present to him.
当戴眼镜的球员终于感知到了冰球
When the goggled player finally perceives the puck
向着球门移♥动♥过去
moving toward the goal,
其他的队员早已滑到了
the rest of the players have already skated
冰场的角落
to a corner of the rink.
这名球员永远也追不上冰球
That player would never catch up with the puck.
在冰球中，一个把过去当成现在的球员
In hockey, a player seeing the past as his now
行动永远慢半拍
would be perpetually late to the action
于是成了一个没用的球员
and would be a useless player.
在大自然中，后果更加严重
In the natural world, the repercussions are more severe.
如果一个捕食者认为它的猎物
If a hunter believed his prey to be in a time and place
在它已经离开的地方
that it had already left,
那它永远也没饭吃
he'd never catch a meal,
它的死期也就不远了
and his days would be numbered.
自然选择引导我们大脑的发展
Natural selection has guided the development of our brains
用这种方式计算时间
to compute in that way.
这是最有效率的生存机制
That's the most efficient survival mechanism,
别的方式都无法生存
and alternatives to it get weeded out.
吉姆想知道一个人工构建的大脑
Jim then wondered whether a brain artificially constructed
不止能经历现在
to experience more than one now
能否获得一些优势
might gain some advantage.
可以想象大脑
It is possible to imagine brains
当前聚焦于感知膜的
that have conscious focus on all parts of its membrane
各个部分
in the present,
但它浪费了有价值的计算资源
but it would waste valuable computational resources
认为它们没有用处
considering options that are useless.
想象一个冰球运动员需要
Imagine the hockey player having to make decisions
在能够用到所有时刻的情况下做决定
where all moments are equally accessible,
他体验到的一切都感觉像是现在
everything in his experience feels like now.
吉姆怀疑一个这样的大脑会被冻结无法行动
Jim suspects a brain like this would freeze into inaction,
因为选择太多而不知所措
overwhelmed by a universe of choices.
我们的过去，现在，未来
Our past, present, and future way
组织时间流的方式
of organizing the flow of time
已经为生物生存得到了最好的进化
has evolved as best for our biological survival.
我们的大脑创造了一个时间的叙述
Our brains have created a narrative of time
可以最好地适应我们的环境
that best suits our environment.
但关于现在是什么的其他观点
But could other perceptions of what now is
能否在其他的环境里工作得更好？
work better in other environments?
其他行星上的生物
It's a very intriguing question whether beings on other planets,
是否
for example,
和我们用同样的方法组织过去、现在和未来
would have the same method of organizing time that we do --
是个很有趣的问题
past, present, and future.
也许在其他的世界上，外星文明已经发明了
Perhaps on other worlds, alien minds have devised ways
增强他们体验时间的方法
to augment their own experience of time.
他们也许能够同时具有
They may be able to thrive with knowledge
过去现在和未来的知识而因此繁荣
of the past, present, and future all at once.
我们自己，能否学习如何管理多重现在？
Could we, ourselves, learn how to manage multiple nows?
这可以比你想像得更加可能
It could be more likely than you think.
一位科学家认为他看到过未来
One scientist thinks he's seen the future
并发现了它投射到过去的阴影
and detected its shadow cast backward in time.
千里之行
You can't get to where you want to go
始于足下
without taking the first step.
看起来很简单
Seems simple enough.
但最新研究表明，反之也成立
But new research is hinting that the opposite could also be true.
你的目的地，可以影响你现在选择的路径
Where you end up might influence the path you're taking now.
桑杜·波佩斯库是英国布里斯托大学的
Sandu Popescu is a professor of physics
一名物理学教授
at the university of Bristol in England.
他作出了令人不安的发现
He's made an unsettling discovery.
未来可能会回顾过去、干预过去
The future might be reaching back and meddling with the past.
桑杜渐渐明白这个想法，是在他和同事们
The idea dawned on sandu while he and his colleagues
探索基本的数学概念
were exploring the fundamental mathematical concept
鸽巢问题的时候
called the pigeonhole principle.
如果有三只鸽子
If I have three pigeons
我想把它们放进两个鸽巢里
and I want to put them into two pigeonholes,
那我就必须把两只鸽子放进同一个巢
then I necessarily end up with two pigeons in one hole.
这是常识
It's common sense.
如果鸽子们任意两个都不分享同一个巢
Three pigeons won't fit into two pigeonholes
三只鸽子就没法放进两个鸽巢里
without two of them having to share.
但如果鸽子缩小到原子的尺寸
But if the pigeons were shrunk down to the size of atoms,
那它们就将遵守量子力学
then they would follow the strange rules
的奇怪规则
of quantum mechanics,
三只鸽子就可以放在两个地方
and then three pigeons could fit into two spaces
永远不必分享同一个地方
and never share the same space.
我可以安排一种情况，我可以保证
I can arrange a situation in which I can guarantee
同一个盒子里不会发现两个粒子
that no two particles will be found in the same box.
这个离奇的效果之所以成为可能
This bizarre effect is possible
是因为微小的量子物体
because miniscule quantum objects
没有确定的位置
don't have definite fixed locations.
量子粒子总得来说与我们所知的日常物体
Quantum particles in general behave very differently
行为迥然不同
from everyday objects that we know.
例如，一个原子可以同时处在两个
For example, an atom can be in two or even more places
甚至更多个地方
at the same time.
但当桑杜开始思考
But when sandu began thinking about
粒子如何避免互相共享空间
exactly how particles avoid sharing a space with one another,
他发现这产生了激进的后果
he found it had a radical consequence.
关于未来的信息，可以沿时间旅行到过去
Information about the future can travel backwards through time.
处理微小的粒子时
The fact that when dealing with microscopic particles,
实验的结果
the result of an experiment
不是从一开始就决定了的
is not determined from the beginning
这个事实表明未来可以影响过去
opens the possibility that the future will influence the past.
桑杜设计了一个实验
Sandu has set up an experiment
探索这个令人好奇的情况
to explore this curious situation.
他把三个电子
He fires batches of three electrons
发射到一个菱形的设备中
into a diamond-shaped apparatus.
它有两条轨道
It has two tracks.
一条向左，另一条向右
One goes to the left, the other goes to the right
然后在第二个分叉口会合
before merging again at a second fork.
这两条轨道就是两个鸽巢
These two tracks are the two pigeonholes.
为了理解桑杜是怎样研究
To understand how sandu studies
这三个电子的
what the three electrons are doing,
把它们想象成三只戴着帽子的鸽子
think of them as three hat-wearing toy pigeons.
我们有三只鸽子和两个鸽巢
We have three pigeons and two pigeonholes.
它们不是去左边，就是去右边
They'll go to the left, and they'll go to the right.